Righteous Anger?

Paul yanked the handbrake as he pulled up outside the house. He knew he probably shouldn’t have been driving when his anger was about to blow like a pressure cooker. Or like a bloody volcano, he thought grimly.

His mind flashed back to the moment when his world had shattered. To start with, shock had numbed his brain. The jolt when he’d realised the boy was Lisa’s had been followed immediately by the heart-slamming moment when he knew Nicky couldn’t be Ralph Glover’s. He didn’t even look like Glover. He looked like… He’d virtually stopped breathing when he realised the boy’s fair hair and blue eyes reminded him of the photos of himself at the same age. This little boy—this Nicky—had to be his. His mind had exploded into a million fragments.

Only when he’d heard Lisa say to Nicky “His name’s Paul” had the anger rushed in. Paul, not ‘your daddy’, not even ‘your father.’ Hot fury swept through him. Had she even told Nicky about him?

More to the point, why the hell hadn’t she told him about her son? His son. Okay, maybe not while he’d been in South America, since they’d parted so acrimoniously. But what about the past few weeks? She’d let him find out by complete chance. If Fiona hadn’t said anything, if he hadn’t agreed to help at the summer fair, he might never have known.

He’d kept his seething anger suppressed all afternoon and pretended everything was normal. He laughed with the kids who were shooting balls into the nets on the basketball court, even helped some of them by showing them the best way to stand and balance the ball.

Now he was parked outside Lisa’s home, and his blood was boiling. He couldn’t remember ever being as angry as he was at this moment.

He strode up the path, jabbed the doorbell and waited.

When Lisa opened the door, he saw her eyes widen, but there was no time to waste on the usual formalities.

“Why?” he demanded. “Why in God’s name didn’t you tell me?”

This excerpt from my latest release, Changing the Future, is offered as my response to the GBE2 (Group Blogging Experience) challenge for this week, which is to write about one or more of the 7 Deadly Sins. In this case, it seems that Paul’s anger is totally justified, and I’m sure there have been times when we’ve all felt a sense of ‘righteous anger’.

Changing the Future:

Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

Available from Amazon